WCOE Turning Point for 11/16

Submitted by wcoe admin on Fri, 11/16/2018 - 11:41am

Sorella Group Recognized by Kansas Department of Commerce

Sorella Group was recognized by the Kansas Department of Commerce as the Kansas Women-Owned Business of the Year in Construction for 2018. Sheila received the award at the 34th Annual Minority Enterprise Development Week Awards Luncheon on October 12 in Topeka, KS.

Women Construction Owners and Executives (WCOE) invites you to join them for their annual conference in Washington, DC, from March 3–5, 2019.

College Park, Georgia, Sets Sights on Massive "Airport City"

'The City of College Park reportedly wants to squeeze as much construction as humanly possible into the massive mixed-use district that could one day serve the areas around Atlanta's airport.

How much? About four Atlantic Stations' worth.

Dubbed "Airport City," the project was pitched earlier this year as a way to enliven a largely vacant, formerly residential spread of 320 acres in College Park. It's proposed to rise around Camp Creek Parkway, just west of the world's busiest passenger airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International.'

'Officials from Ceres, Turlock and the Turlock Irrigation District gathered Friday near Fox Grove Park along the Tuolumne River to celebrate the start of construction of a roughly $272 million project that will provide the two cities with reliable and clean drinking water.

Officials said the project will secure the cities' futures and economic vitality because it gives them a second water source – the Tuolumne River – in addition to the groundwater they now pump.'

'The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved a $1.96 billion 2019-2021 capital program that would pay for construction and physical plant projects ranging from a $3.5 million heating plant chiller and cooling tower replacement to a $300 million all-agency projects funding program.'

'The California bullet train project has cost state taxpayers an average $3.1 million a day over the last year – a construction spending rate higher than that for the Bay Bridge, Boston's Big Dig or any U.S. transportation project in recent historyBut still it's not enough, planners say.

In order to hit its 2033 deadline and $77-billion budget, the California High Speed Rail Authority will have to increase daily spending by up to nine times over the next four years or risk putting the already-delayed system further behind.'

'Just 3 miles separate 2675 Folsom St., a vacant former restaurant equipment warehouse in the Mission District, and 160 Folsom St., a former parking lot near the Transbay Transit Center where a condo tower is under construction.

But in the current economic landscape of the San Francisco's housing development, the two properties are a world apart.

While the next crop of luxury condo towers like 160 Folsom, which developer Tishman Speyer has branded as Mira, continue to rise in the fast-growing eastern end of South of Market, other approved housing projects across the city, like 2675 Folsom St., are stalled and on the market because of soaring construction costs and fees, developers and other industry sources say.'

'Magellan Midstream Partners LP on Wednesday projected it would spend about $2 billion to construct a proposed crude oil pipeline from the Permian Basin in West Texas to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

"We have binding commitments that give us very attractive economics. But what we don't know is the full demand," which would dictate the project's final cost, Michael Mears, Magellan's chief executive, said at the Barclays energy conference in New York.

The project cost for the Permian Gulf Coast pipeline will be clear after shippers commit to volume capacity during the so-called open season, Mears said. The bidding process for additional shipper commitments will be launched later this week.'

'I recently returned from a trip, throughout which I coached clients from four different construction companies. The owners of these companies come from different backgrounds, have different goals for their businesses, employ teams with varying roles and personalities and entertain projects of different sizes. However, during our conversations together, we found there to be one common denominator: They are all busy, but they are all not earning profits at the pace they could be.'

'Port Covington, the sprawling largely undeveloped waterfront property in South Baltimore, will get apartments, a market and offices in the first major phase of development, officials said Wednesday.

No new buildings are likely to open until late 2020 or early 2021, but this part of the overall project is planned to include 3 million square feet of new space, according to Marc Weller, a partner in Weller Development, which is overseeing the project on the 260-acre peninsula.'

'The team behind the $1 billion redevelopment of Chicago's Union Station took the wraps off a heavily revised plan at public meeting on Tuesday night. It ditches a controversial seven-story apartment addition slated for the roof of the landmarked Beaux Arts building while adding a new 50-story office tower next door.

The original proposal, unveiled in June by Riverside Investment & Development, Convexity Properties, and architecture firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz, drew the ire of preservationists, architectural critics, and scores of unimpressed Twitter users.'

'After more than a decade of planning – with some studies and approvals dating back to 2004 – San Francisco officials have finally settled on a route for a Caltrain extension that could also eventually bring high-speed rail into downtown San Francisco.

The first major step toward actually running trains to the Salesforce Transit Center from the current Caltrain station at 4th and King streets was taken Tuesday, when a city transportation board granted a key first approval for a plan to dig a subway tunnel connecting them.'

Chicago O'Hare Ranked Best-Connected Airport in the Nation for the Third Straight Year

'O'Hare International Airport is ranked as the number one airport in the nation for flight connectivity for the third year in a row, according to the OAG Megahubs U.S. Index – the Official Airline Guide – a global authority on service information.'

'Downtown's next office tower can begin its 54-story climb along the banks of the Chicago River following a carefully choreographed concrete pour early Saturday morning. Starting before sunrise, crews from Clark Construction directed 3,300 cubic yards (more than 300 truckloads) of the gray stuff through the spindly arms of three mobile pumps to form the reinforced foundation mat of the building known as 110 N. Wacker.'

'The Seattle City Council took the final step Monday toward allowing a redevelopment of KeyArena that could mean the National Hockey League playing in Seattle by 2020. In a unanimous vote, the council approved lease and development agreements that will allow the Oak View Group to demolish the existing KeyArena and replace it with a new facility.'

'Construction of the $500 million Bellefield at Historic Hyde Park project has begun. Company and public officials gathered at the site on Friday to mark the occasion. When completed, the project will include two hotels, culinary shops, farm-to-table restaurants, a special event barn and educational center.'

'Federal Reserve officials raised interest rates and cemented expectations for another hike this year as they reaffirmed that a strong U.S. economy will probably warrant further gradual increases well into 2019.

The quarter-point hike boosted the benchmark federal funds rate to a target range of 2 percent to 2.25 percent. The move reflected an upbeat assessment of the economy that was identical to the central bank's last policy statement eight weeks ago, despite concerns over President Donald Trump's escalating trade war.'

'About 3,000 construction workers, 50 gigantic cranes, 42 aluminum silos. Large gas compressors, turbines, de-ethanizers, ethane cracking and polyethylene processing units. All in fewer than 365 days. It's not quite a year since Shell Chemicals announced last November that it had started "vertical" construction on a $6 billion ethane cracker plant in Potter Township.'

'North American officials negotiated the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a trade deal that will replace NAFTA and is expected to be signed. President Donald Trump says that the USMCA, which would govern $1.2 trillion worth of trade and could affect half a billion North American consumers, is beneficial to each country.'

'New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo released renderings of a $13 billion plan to add two new terminals and two roadways at John F. Kennedy International Airport, with work expected to last from 2020 to 2025. Cuomo said it should help the airport accommodate at least an extra 15 million passengers per year.'

'A federal judge blocked the release of documents that could shed light on why a busy road outside Miami was not shut down before a brand-new bridge developing severe cracks collapsed and killed six people. Judge William Stafford said the National Transportation Safety Board, the federal agency investigating the Florida International University bridge disaster, "was exercising its valid federal regulatory authority" in keeping the documents confidential from the media.'

'Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced an historic $13 billion plan to transform John F. Kennedy International Airport into a modern 21st century airport anchored by two new world-class international terminal complexes on the airport's north and south sides. This record investment – including $12 billion in private funding – advances the Governor's vision for a unified and interconnected airport system with best-in-class passenger amenities, centralized ground transportation options and vastly improved roadways that collectively will increase the airport's capacity by at least 15 million passengers a year.'

'The cost of many products used in construction climbed 7.4 percent over the past year due to double digit increases in commonly-used construction materials, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of new Labor Department data. Association officials noted that the cost increases come as many construction firms are already grappling with shortages of skilled craftsmen essential for projects but have limited ability to increase prices for their services.'

Burns & McDonnell announced plans for a $42-million, 142,000-sq-ft exansion of its 37-acre Kansas City, MO, headquarters campus. The expansion is the second since 2016 and calls for a four-story office building that will cost $30 million, along with a $12-million, 550-spot parking garage addition.